


Decay

by Nevail



Category: Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: Decaying, Gen, Jack Frost Is Badass, corpse!Jack
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-05-14
Updated: 2013-07-31
Packaged: 2017-12-11 20:30:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,985
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/802898
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nevail/pseuds/Nevail
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It started with his left hand. Then It took over his body, leaving him as nothing more than a stitched up mess</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Falling apart.

**Author's Note:**

> Hi~!
> 
> I hope you enjoy this.
> 
> This was first posted on FF under username Novahetalia

The first thing to fall off was his left hand.   

He hadn’t noticed it until his wrist began to itch before beginning to burn. At first he was shocked that he hadn’t noticed but then he began to panic. He eventually found it after a few days, inside the crook of the tree he’d been sleeping inside for the duration of his newly discovered hibernation cycle.

He tried everything to reattach it, but nothing he knew of would keep it on. Not even tree tar could keep it on and that stuff was sticky.

He cradled his disconnected hand to himself as he went about the different towns to spread winter. Sitting near a portside town, he watched the local fisherman pull in their hauls for the day. Jack noticed that one of the fishermen had a large cut down the side of his leg, possibly from falling on one of the knives they carried on board to cut away snagged nets. Jack floated down as the man he could only assume was the local doctor arrived and knelt beside the injured man.  The ‘doctor’ pulled out a length of thread and a needle and began to stitch up the man’s leg, watching as the skin was pulled together and eventually tied together, looking sturdy as the man flinched in pain.

When the doctor returned to his home, Jack followed him and watched the doctor treat his patients. The pregnant lady. The man with a graphic sword wound. The children with the skinned knees.

Jack paid attention to everything the doctor did that required needle and thread.

When the doctor finished up for the day and finally went to sleep, Jack lingered, taking needles, thread and a small pair of scissors. He flew back to his lake and sat on the shore, his missing hand being nestled in his lap as he attempted to thread the needle that he was holding in between his teeth. He managed to thread the needle and knotted it. He lifted the needle to his wrist and whimpered as he pushed the needle through the skin of his wrist and into the skin of the missing limb, tugging the two edges together.

It took him an hour and three tries to get his hand connected to his body. This first time he tried it , he accidently put his hand on backwards, the second time it was facing sideways. The stitches were messy and spaced too far apart from lack of experience, but for the time being it would have to do. There was a lingering pain from the initial threading lingered for about one hour afterwards, but for the most part everything seemed fine.

Jack tested the strength of his stitches, finding them to be adequate for his current needs. He was quickly gaining feeling back into his once missing limb.

Once he gained all of the feeling in his hand he stood grasping the needle and thread in his hand. He knew he wouldn’t be able to constantly fly around with his hands full. Flying back to the doctors house, he pushed open the window to the upstairs bedroom and stepped into the room. Casting his gaze around he spotted a small pouch that he had seen the doctor with when he’d left to gather herbs. The small pouch was one of many that he had seen the doctor with.  Quickly he lifted the pouch, emptying the contents onto the nearest countertop. Tying the pouch around his neck he placed as much needle and thread as he could into the pouch and left the doctors house.

The next thing to fall off was the lower part of his right leg.

He had just landed on the soggy bank of a river in Canada when his leg became snagged in the cleverly disguised root of an old worn pine tree. As he fell, he twisted and pulled at his leg, only to receive waves of pain in his lower leg as a result. Once the most of the pain had passed he dragged himself to the root and pulled his leg from the root. Placing it down in the now frost covered ground he began to sew it back on, wincing at the sting of the needle threading in and out of his skin.

In and out.  In and out.

Tugging the thread tight, he grimaced as the thread tugged the two skin pieces together. Tying off the thread and putting the thread away, he slowly stood up, wincing at the throbbing at the new join between his knee and lower leg.  Shuddering, he pulled himself together, metaphorically and physically, and began to walk, limping slightly as he went.

Over the following decades and centuries of his solitude and anguish , at each part of his body had fallen off in his travel. On more than one occasion he was forced to back track miles and even whole continents in order to find his missing limbs. He went through thousands of reels of thread, piles of metal needles (some of which he learned he was allergic to ) and had to upgrade his carrying pouch to a messenger bag. On many occasions he found himself fending off feral animals, most of which had smelt the decaying flesh and were drawn to it. His limbs carried bite marks and missing flesh from where the animals had been successful in their starving mindset.

But above all his near misses, the thing that startled him the most….

Was the day he was decapitated.

He had since learned after his complete right arm was torn off (in a incident involving moving too fast in the wind and slamming his arm into a tree, tearing it from his body) that whilst his body was deteriorating, he still had the ability to feel and move his detached limbs. This made it easier to find his parts when he suddenly decided that a blizzard was in order.

He had been walking around the Forrest near the ever growing town of Burgess, close to his lake in the middle of a blizzard, when he spotted a moving object coming towards him at great speed. Tilting his head in confusion, he stopped at the edge of his lake. He heard the creature yell as the being came closer and closer. He saw the being throw something and before he knew it…

His head hit the ground.

Then his headless body hit the ground.

His mind froze and he stared wide eyed at the being, which was now looking down at him in fright.

Vaguely his mind picked up that the being was speaking to him. It seemed sad and frightened and very sorry that it had “killed him”.

The being left them, dropping down into a tunnel that appeared beside him, leaving behind only a quickly wilting flower in their wake.

As he lay there, waiting for something to happen, he pondered why he hadn’t said anything. Then it occurred to him.  He hadn’t spoken a word or eaten anything since his birth on the lake. There was no point having a mouth if there was no one to talk to or not having the necessity to eat anything. Frost had already hardened the flesh of his lips together. Some thread wouldn’t do any harm to keeping it that way. He had seen what words from the mouths of the living and never wanted anything like that to come from his own mouth

He called to his body and to his relief; it began to pull itself towards him. He had the body lift his head up and pull out the thread and needle. This seemed really surreal. He watched as his hands began to thread the needle with more precision and grace than he knew his body had. When the needle was finally threaded, he had his hands bring it up to his lips.

The needle pushed through the upper lip and through the bottom one in a fluidic like movement. He felt no pain as his body sewed his mouth together forever.

When his body finished its assigned job he had it pick his head up and move towards the lake. Placing the head down on the Ice, Jack disjointedly manipulated the ice to shoot upwards and form a reflective surface at the level where his head should have been. His head was lifted and placed on the stunted neck piece, as the hands began to move once again.

Sewing the two pieces of flesh together. Even at the back of the neck. Much to his amusement. Waving away his mirror he stood, grasping his staff. He tilted his head side to side, testing the stability and strength of his stitches.

He began walking towards the town not looking for anything specific, not even worried or upset when people walked through him. That was when the wind decided he needed some new clothes. The North Wind blew towards him, bringing with it new undergarments, a new white long-sleeve shirt, a pair of brown pants that were barely long enough and a long brown cloak with a hood. Smiling and thanking the wind he wandered away from the village back to where his lake stood the bundle of clothing in his hands.

When he was close to his lake, he heard voices. One Russian, the other he wasn’t sure of. Judging by the loud argument they were having, Jack decided to hide until they were gone. He found a crook in the base of a tree and went inside. He quickly stripped, not looking at his body, or its imperfections as he did so. The new clothes fit snug on his body and the cloak hid everything from sight. He settled back as the voices came close by.

“I’m telling you North! I killed Jack Frost! Completely beheaded him!” The Being seemed to say.

“Ah but my friend, Where is body? Has he faded? Frost had no believers so it is possible. Come if you want we will hold a memorial service for him.” The Russian, “North” replied.

“Na mate. The sprite’s body was still breathing when I left him. We gotta help him. His body is still here somewhere. I know it.” The being sniffed at the air and turned around, looking directly at the tree where Jack was hidden. The beings gaze moved swiftly over the trees.

The two creatures left eventually.  By then Jack had fallen asleep in the crook of the tree.

Snow fell gently around his little home. The wind blew gently, curling around the base of the tree.

 


	2. Meeting Again

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank-you to all who reviewed and left Kudos for the last chapter. You are all freaking epic. I do apologize for the wait. If you have already tracked the story down on FF, then feel free to leave comments there!

Many years later the Guardians gathered in the pole, watching as the Man in the Moon chose a new Guardian.

They were all confused at who he chose.

They were confused at the sight of a young figure hidden beneath a long coat with the head pulled up. They looked at each other wondering who on earth they were looking at. Finally North asked the question.

“Manny, Who is this? I don’t recognise him.”  
A snowflake surrounded by something resembling frost was his answer. This just stumped them even more. It took them three hours to realise who it was. And It shocked Bunny.

“JACK FROST?!?!” Bunny roared, startling North, Tooth and Sandy out of their thoughts.  
“Bunny, we did not actually see him die. We-“ He was cut off as a Baby tooth flew in. She spotted her queen and flew to her side. She began to tweet and squeak hurriedly and Tooth jumped to her feet.

“North there’s trouble at Burgess Lake. Pitch is fighting that thing.” She said worry in her mind as she pointed at the Guardian crystal, still highlighted under the moons gaze. The light got brighter before it faded and the crystal lowered back underneath the floorboards.

The Guardians leapt to their feet and North wasted no time in opening a portal to Burgess’s oldest lake. When they landed minutes later, they were startled with what they saw.

The hooded figure stood over Pitch, an Ice dagger in his hand as he swung down with an impressive speed and stabbed the Nightmare King in the stomach, causing the Fear king to fall back onto the ice with a shriek and a loud thud. Pitch screamed out and threw his nightmares at the figure, blasting him off his body. The figure flew back and hit a tree. His head dropped towards his chest as Pitch disappeared, most likely to nurse his wounds.  
The Guardians hurried towards the figure, stopping as the figures head shot up. The group could feel the creatures flicker to each of them. It seemed to lock its gaze on Bunny and without a moment of hesitation, it leapt at him, punching him in the face repeatedly. The Pooka struck back, causing the figure to go flying back.   
It slammed against the tree once again and a horrible ripping sound echoed around the lake as the figures head rolled forward onto its own motionless lap.

A heavily scarred face looked up at them, blue eyes looking up underneath locks of pure white hair. Some flesh was missing from the young boy’s cheek and his lips were sealed with surgical thread, his right eye being held in by a few hastily done stitches stretching from his eyebrow ridge to the tip of his cheek just below the eye socket, the eye seemingly out of his socket. The stitched mouth only added to the horror that was Jack Frost. The eyes narrowed at the Pooka as the body suddenly moved beneath him, taking the head in its hands and standing. Tooth promptly fainted.

“Jack Frost, da?” North asked, moving between the two beings. The stitched up boy moved his gaze from the Pooka to the old Russian Cossack Warrior. He nodded at North’s question before a questioning look came over his face.

“Man in Moon wishes for you to be Guardian.” North told him. A look of irritation came over the boys face in response. He shook his head and gestured to his face. When North looked confused he pulled out a tattered, filthy notebook and debilitated pencil from his messenger bag, hidden under the cloak. He scribbled something on the parchment, scratching words out occasionally and turned it towards the conscious Guardians.

What child would want to look and believe in me? I’m Hideous.   
The handwriting was as ancient as the notebook, with fluid cursive like calligraphy littering the paper.

The boy looked down at his cloak, away from the Guardians. Sandman flew up to the boy’s head and took it in his hands. The boy looked at him and gasped as Sandman kissed his forehead, smiling. 

“Jack, we will fix you. I have large library. We can help fix your body. Just come with us.” North explained to him. He watched as Jack seemed to think before his gaze flickered back to his body, which was now writing. When the body was done, it turned towards North.

Are you serious? You can fix me? I don’t want to be like this anymore!

Santa Claus nodded and smiled down at him. He gestured for Bunny to lift up Tooth and for Sandy to give Jack’s body his head back. Bunny lifted the warrior queen into his furred arm and blushed as the queen unconsciously leaned into the body carrying her. Sandy tucked the head into the crook of Jack’s arm.

When they were ready and Jack had made sure he had all of his parts, North threw a globe and a spiralling portal appeared. Jack looked startled and a little bit unsure. He looked at Sandy who took his hand and led him through the portal behind everyone else.

The Portal spat them out and Jack, unused to landing from portal, collapsed gasping in pain at the strain the journey had on his skin and stitches. The stitches holding his eye in place had snapped in the journey and he scrambled to find it. He looked each way and spotted his eye in the possession of an Elf who spotted him approaching him, licked the eye and fled out the nearest doorway, causing his body (with his head in its arms) to chase after him, Sandy and North following him to make sure he didn’t get lost. Jack ran after the elf, down stairs and through vast corridors. Sandy managed to keep track of him using his sand; whereas North had to stop to catch his breath about ten minutes into the chase. He told the Sandman to bring Jack to the infirmary after he had gotten his eye back.

Jack eventually cornered the eye thief elf and snatched his eye back. Eventually he noticed how quiet it had gotten around him; compared to the racket he had heard during the chase down the hallway and looked away from the corner to the rest of the hallway. Furred creatures peered out of the doors lining the hallways, their eyes confused and some fearful of the cloaked being. Sensing fear the boy shifted his head into the folds of his cloak and pulled the hood up placing the eye into his medical pouch, where many of his parts lay for the time being. He allowed the sand to guide him, gentle tugs on the cloak being enough to steer him back to the infirmary. Upon entering the Infirmary, the sand tugged him forward and Jacks body pulled Jacks head out of the folds and into the room as he felt the change of temperature change from being rather warm to just above freezing. He noticed that North and Sandy were waiting patiently by one bed.

“Jack, we want to patch you up so to speak. But we need to check all of the stitches and re do them if necessary. Will you allow us to do so?” North asked, slowly not wishing to startle the boy. Jack didn’t know where the Rabbit humanoid being was but he didn’t really care. Jacks body leaned forward and back in his motion of a nod.

“Can you remove your clothing? It will make it easier.” North queried gently, standing up from his chair. Jack seemed to freeze in place at the request before complying slowly with barely restrained fright. His head was placed down on the nearest bed as his body began to remove the clothing covering his hideous body. 

The cloak was discarded, revealing his teenage undernourished figure, quickly followed by his shirt and trousers. He was left standing in his undergarments as gasps filled the room. Jack seemed to flinch at the sound.

If he still had tear glands, they would be active right now. Jack was so disgusted of his body.

“J-Jack come lay on the bed in the light.” North quivered, trying to maintain some order in his now startled mind. The body complied, lifting Jacks head and moving to the light-covered bed and laying down. The Body placed the head on the pillow before lying down and lining itself up with the head.

Under the bright light, Jacks body was horrific.

His chest was open, leaving his ribs and most of his organs visible to the outside light, shadows cast over the empty places in the body. His legs were marred with animal bites and stab wounds. His feet were worse, with at least three toes missing on the left foot and one on the right. Raggedly done stitches were barely holding the foot onto the debilitated leg. His arms were also missing flesh, his left hand even missing a few fingers.

Looking closer at the chest, he noticed that a vital organ was missing.

“Jack… Where is your heart?” the startled and slightly nauseated Russian asked. The boy avoided his gaze as his body pointed towards the messenger bag on the floor. Sandy hovered over to it lifting it up and floated back over to it. He tipped the contents of the bag onto the bed and flew back as a blackened and very dead heart dropped from the bag, along with the missing pieces of flesh and limb. This was around the time that Bunny walked into the room.

If it was possible, he would have gone green.

He approached the bed slowly, as North composed himself and threaded the nearby needle with a tougher surgical thread. 

Starting with the boy’s head, he gently sewed the boy back together. 

Three rolls of surgical thread later, the boy was relatively whole again and each section of sewed, dead or dying flesh was wrapped in bandages. North removed the frightening stitches from the boys face and pushed the boy’s eye back into the socket, before wrapping the whole side of his face in bandages. Ad throughout it all, Jack made no noise, Only stared straight ahead.

The Pooka had to leave the room multiple times, to prevent himself from hurling all over the poor boy. When the dead boy was finally patched and sewn up he sat up on the bed and tested the stitches. They held better than his own and he smiled his thanks at the Russian. 

Sandy used his dream-sand to put the boy into sleep, having already seen the boy’s decaying eyelids beginning to drop from the events of the day.

Questions could wait till tomorrow.


	3. Chapter 3 Stiches

When the stitched Jack finally awoke, he found himself in the infirmary.

Looking down at himself he felt neatly sewn stitches covering his body, some open to the air and others bound with pure white gauze. His skin had been cleaned, scrubbed red in some places. He had been dressed in a white singlet and long, loose black pants, embroided along the bottom with spirals. He noticed that despite his lips being unsewn, they were still frosted together.  
Jack stood, swaying slightly as his disembodied eye moved about in the socket. Holding his head, he waited until it stopped moving before heading towards the door. Opening it he travelled down the corridor towards the noisiest part of the workshop. As he passed them, elves peered up at him, before looking at each other with confused and scared expressions and running away as fast as their tiny feet could carry them. 

He found the rest of the Guardians in one of the main sitting room, talking quietly amongst themselves. Sandy looked up when he spotted Jack out of his perhipheral vision. He jingled a nearby elf and caught the others attention, guesturing to the doorway, where Jack stood.

“Ahh Frost! Good to see you up and about. You were not out for long.” North said cheerfully as the boy silently took a seat on the sofa, seating himself next to a very disgruntled Bunny. Jack kept the Pooka, seating himself so that his back was against the arm of the sofa. 

“So Jack. How long has this been happening?” North quiered guesturing to Jacks body. He thought for a moment before he held up his hand. He held up three fingers, clenching his fist twice to signify zeros. 

“Jack can you speak? Because that would make it much easier to understand, rather than your odd hand signals.” North questioned. He had noticed that whilst he slept , Jack made no noise whatsoever, even his breathing was silent. 

Jack nodded, summoning a dagger of ice in his hand. Bunny flew off the couch at the sight of it. Looking at them all, he motioned for them to look away before bringing the blade up to his mouth. Just as North turned around, he forced the blade between his frozen lips and twisted. He grunted as North cried out as he forced the blade sideways, cutting through the ice. At North’s cry the others spun round, just as Jack pulled the blade out. They all cried out and rushed to him, as he began to pry his mouth open with his fingers.

Before any of them could reach them, Jack’s mouth fell open. He began to stretch it , rubbing it as the muscles began to work again. Air that had been there since he had sealed it up, rushed out filling the air with the smell of decaying flesh. Tooth gasped at the smell, but brightened at the sight of polished pearly whites that lived in the boys mouth. She fluttered over sticking her fingers and squealing.He batterd the hands away and pushed her hands away. 

“I…. have……. one….. But….. I….. choose…. Not….. to…. Use….it.” Jack whispered, his small voice penetrating the silence in the room. Blood dripping down his chin as it began to move again.

“Jack, You should have asked up to do that! Your just hurting yourself more!” Bunny yelled at him. Jack flinched and glared at him.

“Shut…. Up….Killer” Jack whispered, anger in his words. 

Silence filled the room.


	4. Stories

Jack’s piercing blue eyes never left him as they moved to the closest living room area in Santoff Clausen.

Jack had once again been cleaned up, his teeth beginning to decay for whatever reason. Grunting Jack focused his Ice over the top of his teeth, crafting a set of retainer like devices in order to slow the decomposition.

Bunny stood by the fireplace, looking anywhere but at Jack. Tooth’s gaze fluttered between the two as North sat down in his armchair. 

“Jack. Glaring daggers at Bunny will not change what happened. Now tell me how long ago did this start happening?” North asked, finally pulling Jack’s attention away from the flinching Pooka warrior. Jack pondered the question for what seemed like an age. 

“What year…Is it?” He asked back, his voice gaining some strength upon his usage of it. It was still coarse and croaky but at least it was an improvement on not being able to speak at all.

“2012.” North replied. His age was getting to him again. He’d even forgotten the year.

The decaying child thought for a few moments, his eyes fixed on the fire held within the fireplace. Scenes flashed before his eyes as he struggled to remember the exact time that the decay had begun occur.

“About two hundred and ….ninety nine years ago….started after the first year of my existence. I watched a doctor from a seaside fishing town…. patch up sailors and so I learnt how to patch myself up… I didn’t realise it had fallen off until I looked down at my hand. It burned so much…like molten fire. The first time I did the stitching It hurt so much…. After about 100 years almost every part of my body had fallen apart all except for my head and torso… No the one part of my body that I never wanted to sever, was torn off when I was attacked by a moronic, freakish kangaroo creature known as E.Aster Bunnymund. Shortly after the altercation between him and me, my body lifted my head up and sewed it back on. Over the rest of the days following, pretty much everything went to hell. My jaw fell off when I was biting something; my eye popped out of its socket, my ear fell off.... It seems to be accelerating.” Jack said slowly, taking breaks between sentences. At the end of his story, he rubbed his throat. Pulling his hand away, sections of skin pulled away with it, leaving behind the dark brown red flesh of his throat.  
The room was silent as he finished his tale, watching as he made no reaction to the skin being pulled away. He just seemed to sigh in defeat. 

“Jack…. Why did you not come to anyone sooner? Surely Mother Nature would have helped you. Did you not even try to ask Manny for assistance?” North asked concern in his voice.

“I did ask Mother Nature… But she threw me aside as if I was a overused dog toy. Not worth her time. Not even worth helping. And Manny? He saw what was happening to me first, saw me completely falling to pieces, and heard my cries for help. And did nothing.” Jack snarled, looking right into North’s eyes. 

Through the ragdoll like boys eyes Santa saw the attempts to get help, saw him being pushed away by Manny and Mother Nature as if some failed experiment, an abomination that they threw away.

“Jack….Jack I’m sorry for almost killing you or harming you. You caused a storm on Easter Sunday in ’68. And I just got so frustrated. Why?” Bunnymund asked slowly, moving closer to the Stitched boy.

“Mother Nature had just cast me away again. I was so desperate for help. The flesh of my legs had completely rotted. I could feel insects crawling on me, in me. I just wanted to be whole again. Her casting me away was the last straw. I went back to the place it where it all began and started a full on blizzard. I had no concept of time. Years felt like minutes to me. I let all my anger, betrayal and grief go into the storm. Animals and Humans alike died that day, but this was unknown to me when Miss Death came to town. Shortly after my little tantrum, as Death called it, The rabbit showed up. And what happened between us, you already know. ”

The frozen boy looked around the room watching as each one of the guardians looked down avoiding his gaze. He went to yawn and his jaw tore off and landed on the floor. Rolling his eye, he reached down and picked it up. Sitting back up he realised that all eyes were back on him. Lifting it up to its usual place , he quickly snapped it back into place with a grunt. Bunnymund turned green again and even Tooth looked squeamish.

Jack sighed heavily, before saying

“One day, I hope that I will just fall asleep one day, and never wake up again.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Authors Note: Hi all~! I do apologies for the delay! I’ve had a few virus’s ransack my laptop so this got wiped a few times! But its all fixed now  
> 
> Thank you to all who I met at Supanova Perth! Our group went on stage and won Best Group in the Standard competition on Saturday. We were 50 Shades of Cosplay! XD
> 
> Please read and review!


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